Student exchange applications available

The Newport Balboa Rotary Club and the Newport Beach Sister Cities Assn. are accepting applications for their 31st annual student exchange with Okazaki, Japan.

Seven eighth-grade Newport Beach students will travel to Okazaki for 10 days in June. The students will live with a Japanese family who has a son or daughter of the same age, visit their school and participate in cultural and sightseeing activities, said Rotary Club board member Richard Oberreiter.

In October, the American students will welcome his or her Japanese student counterpart to their homes to show them about life in the United States, he said.

"This is a unique opportunity to visit and learn about a different culture and make lifelong friends," he said.